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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with soda crackers, milk, figs, suet, brandy, eggs, sugar, baking soda, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the crushed soda crackers and milk.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk mixture.

  3. Add the chopped figs, suet, brandy, beaten eggs, nutmeg, and sugar.

  4. Mix all ingredients in the order given until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for four hours.

  3. Serve with a wine or hard sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Fig + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Soda crackers
Crumbs soak up the milk and give the pudding its body.
Eggs
They set during cooking, binding the pudding into a firm, sliceable mass.
Suet
Its fat keeps the pudding moist and gives it a rich, tender texture.
Figs
They add natural sweetness, moisture and a fruity flavor.
Sugar
It sweetens the pudding and adds to its browned, caramel-like flavor.

The step that matters

Steam for four hours. Long, gentle steaming cooks the eggs and crumbs slowly into a set, moist pudding. Rushing with a hard boil can leave the texture rough or the outside overcooked before the center sets.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, fig, brandy, egg, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, fig, brandy, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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